Updates!

Well I did it...my first ever half marathon! It definitely was not something I ever thought I would do, but I am glad I did and I even finished it without crawling across the finish line!! Ira and I decided to do it several months ago and began our training. Ira's brother, Seth, decided to join us as well. We headed to Moab on Friday to compete in the Canyonlands Half Marathon. It was pretty windy, as there was a storm moving in, but other than that things seemed perfect for a race. The gun went off and we began. Seth immediately took off and Ira and I stuck together for the first mile or so and the Ira sped up and I was on my own. It was a beautiful run for 10 miles down the canyon. I was feeling pretty pumped as I got out of the canyon and only had 3 miles to go...once I hit mile 11 we were running out on the highway and that's when things got rough. The wind was atrocious and directly head on. It felt like I was hardly moving. I had to fight through the wind so hard, but by mile 12 we turned and it was no longer head on. I crossed the finish line at 2:08. Not the fastest time, but I was pretty proud none the less. Ira was waiting for me at the finish. He finished in 1:50!!! Wow, right!! Anyway, we went and got our gatorade and bananas and such and went to see about finding Seth. Ira's mom and friend were supposed to be at the finish line taking pics, but we hadn't seen them. We called Ira's mom, but she didn't answer, so we sat down to rest and then got a call from Ira's dad. Seth had collapsed during the race and had been taken to the hospital!! We were pretty freaked out so we started walking to the hospital, a pretty lofty undertaking after just running 13.1 miles!! We stopped some people and asked if they would take pity on us and drive us there. Upon arriving at the hospital we found poor Seth all hooked up to an IV. We found out that he had been pushing it really hard and was probably going to finish in under 1:30 but at mile 12.5 his body gave out. He passed out and was unconscious for 15 minutes. He had a temperature of 105.5!!! Crazy huh, they had to pour water all over him and cover him in ice packs! He had severe heat exhaustion. He was released a couple hours later and is now feeling much better, but it made for a pretty crazy end to our half marathon journey. Besides that part, it was a very rewarding experience. Call me crazy, but I just might do one again!!!






Before the race!